Hand-held electronic instruments have become increasingly popular in recent years. Such hand-held instruments include cellular phones, hand-held electronic organizers, and also handheld global positioning system (GPS) devices. It is often very desirable to allow a person to mount a hand-held instrument to a particular support surface, such as a vehicle dashboard or other surface in the passenger compartment of a vehicle. Because it is advantageous to operate the electronic instrument when it is attached to the support surface, such a mount needs to be firm and stable to allow a user to operate buttons on the electronic instrument, and also to read various displays, such as LCD panels, on the instrument.
Various devices have been developed for holding a cellular phone in a vehicle. Most of these devices include stationary gripping members used in conjunction with movable gripping members. In order to secure a phone to the holding device, a phone operator must insert the phone within the mounting base and thereafter in some manner actuate the movable gripping members toward the phone to pinch the phone such that it is attached to the mounting base. As is apparent, these structures offer various disadvantages For instance, such structures oftentimes require two hands to force the movable gripping members toward the stationary gripping members to secure the phone in the base. Examples of these types of phone mounts are found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,788,202 to Richter; U.S. Pat. No. 5,179,590 to Wang; and U.S. Pat. No. 5,033,709 to Yuen. In addition, these prior art devices also suffer from the disadvantage of having assembled moving parts, which can lead to expensive manufacturing costs and procedures. Still further, to dismount a phone from these mounting devices, it is often necessary to utilize two hands to actuate the movable gripping members away from the stationary gripping members. As is apparent, such an action can take a substantial amount of time on the part of the user, and also can require the user to utilize two hands in a driving situation, thus potentially creating an unsafe driving scenario.
Another example of a phone mount is found in U.S. Pat. No. 5,187,744 to Richter. This phone mount utilizes pivotally attached members to secure the phone in position on the mount. The construction of the mounting device in this reference includes numerous moving parts and various springs, thus likely leading to expensive manufacturing costs, and the potential for parts wearing out or breaking due to continued use. Additionally, this mounting device also may require an instrument operator to exercise a substantial amount of force to remove the telephone from the mount due to the spring-loaded action of the pivotally mounted gripping members. The force required could result in an operator being distracted during the operation of a vehicle in which the mount is disposed.
An additional mounting structure for an instrument is disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 5,480,115 to Haltof. This reference discloses a holding device that has a cradle portion adjacent a lower end of the instrument and a latch member on the top of the instrument. As is apparent, the location of the latch member on the top of the instrument is not located conveniently for actuation by a user attempting to grab the instrument from the holder. In particular, a user typically grabs an instrument utilizing the thumb on one side and one or more of the other fingers on the other side. Therefore, the positioning of the latch on the top of the electronic instrument does not lead to an ergonomic design that would allow an operator to grip the instrument in a normal position, and at the same time operate the structure used to latch the instrument in place. Additionally, this reference has at least two moving parts and could be difficult to assemble, requiring the snapping in of a pivot point arrangement adjacent the upper surface of the mount.
A holding device is needed to alleviate the problems discussed above with the prior art structures. In particular, a holding device is needed that securely holds an electronic instrument in place, while allowing easy one-handed attachment and detachment of the electronic instrument from the holding device. Additionally, a mount is needed that can be easily manufactured with a minimum number of pieces to provide a durable, simple manner of attachment of an electronic instrument to a support surface.